Redlip blenny

Appearance

Adult redlip blennies can reach two to four inches in length. They are chocolate brown in appearance with some yellow markings, and possess blunt heads featuring four branching horns, and large reddish lips. A variation on the species is a paler form, having a shell-white body and reddish brown head.

Distribution

"Ophioblennius atlanticus" is native to the tropical marine environments of the western central Atlantic Ocean. Its range extends from North Carolina, US, and Bermuda southward to Brazil, and includes the western Gulf of Mexico and the Antilles. "Ophioblennius atlanticus" mostly inhabits shallow, clear waters with coral reefs and rock bottoms. "Ophioblennius atlanticus" adults are mostly found at depths of 10 to 20 meters, while their eggs are benthic.

Habitat

"Ophioblennius atlanticus" is native to the tropical marine environments of the western central Atlantic Ocean. Its range extends from North Carolina, US, and Bermuda southward to Brazil, and includes the western Gulf of Mexico and the Antilles. "Ophioblennius atlanticus" mostly inhabits shallow, clear waters with coral reefs and rock bottoms. "Ophioblennius atlanticus" adults are mostly found at depths of 10 to 20 meters, while their eggs are benthic.

Reproduction

Redlip blennies reproduce year-round in the ten days before and four days after the full moon in each month. The male and female pair up in the first three hours of daylight, and the female moves to the male territory. The male has to prepare a nest for depositing eggs. In order to prepare a nest, the male makes a "small box-like" space in its territory and removes coral rubble and dead algae crusts from the space. One male redlip blenny usually has five nests, and the amount of time he spends at each nest is determined by how much the nest is favored by females. Usually the most favored nest has a larger inner surface area and volume than the less favored ones. When a female redlip blenny enters a male's nest, the female chooses whether or not to mate with the male. Larger males with larger nests have better chance of successful mating than smaller males with smaller nests. During spawning seasons, males reduce their feeding. The eggs are deposited in a single layer, and the male guards and cares for the eggs by blowing air onto them until they hatch as planktonic larvae. The egg batches in one nest may be at different developmental stages because the male redlip blenny is polygynous, mating with multiple females. In other words, the eggs have different mothers. Female redlip blennies tend to be polyandrous as well, meaning that there are multiple nests with one female's eggs.

The female mate choice primarily relies on a male's genetic quality or its non-genetic quality. A male is recognized to have good genes, if it has physical features that are suitable for survival. Usually, big body size indicates good genetic quality. Mating with a male of good genetic quality assures that the offspring will also have good genes and thus the physical features favorable for survival. This eventually will propagate the female's own genes. The non-genetic quality includes many examples, such as good parental care. Good parental care does not guarantee good genes for the offspring. However, good parental care can increase the survival rate of the offspring, thereby spreading the female's genes.

Female redlip blennies consider both the genetic and non-genetic quality of the male. First of all, they choose males largely based on their sizes. Larger males can better protect the female and the eggs against predators. Furthermore, larger male redlip blennies have larger antimicrobial organs at their anal-urogenital regions, which they use to prevent microbial infection in the eggs. Female redlip blennies also consider males' allopaternal care when choosing mates. Allopaternal care proves to the female that the male is capable of protecting the eggs from predators. Finally, a statistical study showed that female redlip blennies may prefer older males because the age of the male could reflect his survival ability and thus guarantee the offspring better fitness.Many fish have a swimbladder. By filling the swimbladder with gas, fish can float and swim in the water. However, redlip blennies never develop a swimbladder. The lack of a swimbladder does not affect adult redlip blennies, since they have already adjusted to the benthic life, as they matured. However, unlike the adults, redlip blenny larvae are not comfortable living at the sea bottom. Until they adjust to the bottom-dwelling life style, the larvae use a means of floating for survival: redlip blenny larvae have a huge storage of lipids in their liver, and this high lipid concentration provides buoyancy. The larvae keeps its high lipid concentration until maturation. Later, as the larvae go through metamorphosis, it burns down all the stored lipids to support the high metabolism of metamorphosis. After losing its lipids through metamorphosis, the now-grown-up redlip blenny does not restore lipids, which provides a permanent high density body to the adult fish.

Cultural

These fish occasionally make their way into the pet trade. They require a minimum of 30 gallons, and being generally peaceful are suitable for community tanks, as long as no other fish have a similar body shape. However they do well in mated pairs. They should be kept at temperatures of 72-78 °F, with a PH level of 8.1-8.4. They have a jumping ability which allows them to jump from tide pool to tide pool in the wild. This means that if they are to be housed in an aquarium a lid is necessary. The horseface blenny feeds primarily on algae, but also consumes zooplankton and other invertebrates. They possess two razor-sharp canine teeth, which has earned them the nickname of "devil fish" in some countries.